Friday, May 13, 2005

Tough Gang Bill Passes House

GovTrack.us reports that HR 1279 passed the House yesterday with 91% of Republicans supporting and 63% of Democrats opposing. The measure passed 279 to 144.

If you click on the link, it will take you to a PDF with the text of the bill on it. The GOP website has this summary of the bill:

Summary: H.R. 1279 is a comprehensive bill to increase gang prosecutions and prevent gang-related crimes. The bill authorizes increased federal funding to support Federal, State and local law enforcement efforts against violent gangs, and to coordinate law enforcement agencies’ efforts to share intelligence and jointly prosecute violent gangs. The Act also creates new criminal gang prosecution offenses, enhances existing gang and violent crime penalties to deter and punish illegal street gangs, proposes violent crime reforms needed to prosecute effectively gang members, and proposes to reform the federal juvenile justice system to authorize prosecution of 16 and 17 year old gang members who commit violent crimes.

Sounds like an awesome bill. I can't imagine why 63% of Democrats opposed this bill. I'm sure it was for purely non-partisan reasons of principle...